Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Kingdom of Zhang-zhung & Shambhala

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Just to the west of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire ....... an area in which Indian Buddhism and the Bon teachings interacted with various strands of the great Iranian and Central Asian religions-- Zoroastrian, Zurvanist, Mithraist, Manichean, as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity.

Shangshung was destroyed by the Tibetans in the 8th Century AD.

In the Bon myth, Olmolungring was northwest of Mt Kailas, twice as far from it as the peak is from Shigatse, a major town in central Tibet. (Newman, 1985).....(i.e.. 1200 Miles?)

"The Chinese-pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, c. 634 CE, describes a journey from Chuluduo (Kūluta, Kulu) to Luohuluo (Lahul) and then states that, "[f]rom here, the road, leading to the north, for over one thousand, eight hundred or nine hundred li by perilous paths and over mountains and valleys, takes one to the country of Lāhul. Going further to the north over two thousand li along a route full of difficulties and obstacles, in cold winds and wafting snowflakes, one could reach the country of Marsa (also known as Sanbohe)."The kingdom of Moluosuo, or Mar-sa, would seem to be synonymous with Mar-yul, a common name for Ladakh. Elsewhere, the text remarks that Mo-lo-so, also called San-po-ho borders with Suvarnagotra or Suvarnabhumi (Land of Gold), identical with the Kingdom of Women (Strirajya). According to Tucci, the Zhangzhung kingdom, or at least its southern districts, were known by this name by the 7th-century Indians. In 634/5 Zhangzhung acknowledged Tibetan suzernaity for the first time, and in 653 a Tibetan commissioner (mnan) was appointed there. Regular administration was introduced in 662, and an unsuccessful rebellion broke out in 677.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ladakh

The organized Bon religion traces itself from Shenrab (gShen-rab), a teacher from the fabled land of Olmo-lungring (‘Ol-mo lung-ring) on the eastern edge of Tagzig (sTag-gzig), who brought it to Zhang-zhung (Zhang-zhung) in the remote, distant past. Zhang-zhung was an ancient kingdom with its capital in western Tibet near the sacred Mount Kailash. Some modern Russian scholars, basing themselves on linguistic analysis, identify Olmo-lungring with Elam in ancient western Iran and Tagzig with Tajik, referring to Bactria.

SILVER PALACE OF THE GARUDA VALLEY....Capital of Shang Shung...."Khyunglung Nulkhar, the Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley, the ruins are to be found in the Sutlej Valley southwest of Mount Kailash." (80E 31N)...(Wangyal: 1993..pg 31)....Khyunglung Nulkar..(Khyung lung dngul mkhar)..."the Silver Palace of Khyung-lung (80E 31N) in the upper Sutlej Valley of Zhang-Zhung (Hoffman: 1979..pg 103)...

MT YUNGDRUNG GUTSEG..."old Bonpo texts describe how the 'nine story swastika mountain' had to be moved from the north to the present location at Kailas." (Allen: 1982..pg 30)..See: Flying Mountains..."To the west of Tibet in a larger country called Tazig is Mount Yungdrung Gutseg. At its bas springs 4 rivers flowing in the four directions. The mountain is surrounded by temples, cities and parks."...

Until the seventh century, Zhang-zhung existed as a separate state which comprised the land to the west of the Central Tibetan Provinces of U and Tsang and generally known as Western Tibet. The historical evidence is incomplete but there are some reliable indications that it may have extended over the vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho in the east, and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital of Zhang-zhung was a place called Khyunglung Ngulkhar - 'The Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley' - the ruins of which are to be found in the upper Sutlej Valley to the south-west of Mount Kailash. The people of Zhang-zhung spoke a language which is classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages.

Bon religious historical identity. Investigated are: the creation of the myth of the Zhang zhung Empire of the Bon po-s (the Zhang zhung royal myth and the ‘location’ of Zhang zhung culture) and the development of the myth of the founder of Bon, Ston pa gShen rab(s) mi bo.....(The Three Pillars of Bon’: Doctrine, ‘Location’ & Founder—Historiographical Strategies and their Contexts in Bon Religious Historical Literature.)

"Zhang Zhung.....also Shang Shung, or in modern Chinese: Xanxun....Name of an ancient Himalayan kingdom that existed before (ca. 500 years earlier) and during the rise of the kingdom known as Bod (Tibet). .....Zhang Zhung roughly covered the area now known as West Tibet, specifically Guge and the region around Mt. Kailas (Tib., ti se) and Lake Manasarovar (Tib., ma-pham tsho), and Ladakh (now a part of Indian controlled Kashmir).....Once the Bod-kingdom had expanded into all directions - to the borders of Turkestan (north) and Persia (west) to parts of Nepal (south) and to Amdo (east) - also Zhang Zhung became a part of Bod, which by then had grown into what we are now accustomed to call Tibet......Although there is no exact history (yet) of Zhang Zhung and its cultural development, it seems that Buddhist and Tantric teachings have reached this area and merged with the indigenous tradition - a development that occurred way before the so-called first diffusion (of Buddhism into Tibet)......This is also indicated by the title of a genealogy of the Dzogchen teachings within the Bon tradition: Dzogchen Zhang Zhung Nyangyud (Tib., rdzogs-pa chen-po zhang-zhung snyan-brgyud) translates as The Oral Transmission of the Great Perfection of Zhang Zhung; also known in a short form as Zhang Zhung Nyangyud....(http://yoniversum.nl/dakini/zhangzhung.html)

SHANG-SHUNG..."Was an intermediary between historical periods and peoples." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 568)...Three regions: sGo-ba (outer), phug-pa (inner), bar-ba (middle)...King Trigum Tsenpo (1st century AD King of Shang Shung)...Shangshung was conquered by the expanding Tibetan empire in the 7th Century AD.

SHANG SHUNG...Information on the language and culture of Shang Shung (Zhang Zhung, Zan Zun). Until the 7th century, an independent, non-Tibetan kingdom, with its own language and history..... Especially the Zhang-zhung terms: WER RO (king), NYI RI (sun), SHE TUN (heart)(Kvaerne: 1996).... The Zhang-zhung dialect is somewhat related to Tibetan, but it is closer to the modern Kanauri language of the western Himalayas. (Reynolds:1996)... Translations on the early history of Zhang Zhung from the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud (See Wangyal:1993 p 209)..."The Tibetan script U-Med is based on the ancient script of Zhang-Zhung. This script is called sMar-yig or Lha-bab-yi-ge, which means "script descended from the heavens" and is possibly 3000 years old. (Ngakpa:1986..pg 178)....Article in Montreal Gazette (December 12, 1997): The French explorer Michel Peissel announced that he has found remnants of Shangshung in the remote region of Tibet. (Reuters)..."Thirty three generations of Shang-Shung Kings reigned from Nyatri Tsenpo to Songtsen Gampo who died in 649 A.D.) (Norbu: 1995..pg xvi)....."The Dzogchen teachings of the 'Oral Transmission of ShangShung' have enjoyed direct and uninterupted transmission from ancient times to the present, whereby apart from the inherent value of the teachings themselves, they are also extremely precious as historical sources." (Norbu: 1995, pg 218)...See "The Zhang Zhung Language", A Grammar and Dictionary of the Unexplored Language of the Tibetan Bonpos" by Eric Haarh, Kobenhaven: 1968"..

According to Bon history there were six great translators who were responsible for translating and spreading the doctrines of Bon in the surrounding countries. The disciples of Mu cho ldem drug of sTag gzig translated the teachings into the language of Zhang zhung, and it was from here that the teachings were brought to Tibet during the reign of the legendary first King of Tibet, gNya’ khri btsan po9. Zhang zhung plays the same role for the Bon religion as India does for Tibetan Buddhists. According to Bon sources, Zhang zhung was a large kingdom stretching from Gilgit in the west and encompassing all of western Tibet. Its capital was Khyung lung dngul mkhar in the region of Mt Ti se (Kailash). Tradition maintains that the second king of Tibet Mu khri btsan po, invited 108 Bon scholars from Zhang zhung to Tibet, and 37 religious centres were established during his reign (Cech 1987). The Bonpo claim that most of their texts were originally written in the language of Zhang zhung.

dMu tsha tra he was an important scholar from sTag gzig. He studied under the guidance of gYung drung gTsug shen rgyal ba, Drang srong rgyal ba, rMa lo, g.Yu lo and Mu cho Idem drug, the sucessor of sTon pa gshen rab. Among his numerous disciples were rDzu 'phrul ye shes who brought the teachings of monastic discipline to Zhang zhung and Tibet. (BonPo Hidden Treasures...by jean-Luc Achard

"Until the 8th century Zhang Zhung existed as a separate kingdom, comprising the land to the west of the central Tibetan provinces of U (dBus) and Tsang (gTsang) and generally known as Western Tibet, extending over a vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho (gNam mtsho) in the east and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital was called Khyunglung Ngulkhar (Khyung lung dngul mkhar), the “Silver Palace of Garuda Valley”, the ruins of which lie in the upper Sutlej valley southwest of Mount Kailash. Its people spoke a language classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages. The country was ruled by a dynasty of kings which ended in the 9th century A.D. when the last king, Ligmincha, (Lig min skya) was assassinated by order of the king of Tibet and Zhang-Zhung militarily annexed by Tibet. Since that time Zhang-Zhung has become gradually Tibetanized and its language, culture and many of its beliefs have been integrated into the general frame of Tibetan culture. Due to its geographical proximity to the great cultural centres of central Asia such as Gilgit and Khotan, it was through Zhang-Zhung that many religious concepts and ideas reached Tibet.

"The Bonpos came to identify this Shambhala with Olmo Lungring itself. All this suggests that certain trends within Yungdrung Bon, rather than being later plagiarisms and imitations of Indian Buddhism concocted in the tenth century, actually do go back to a kind of syncretistic Indo-Iranian Buddhism that once flourished in the independent kingdom of Zhang-zhung before it was forcibly incorporated into the expanding Tibetan empire in the eighth century. This "Buddhism", known as gyer in the Zhang-zhung language and as bon in the Tibetan, was not particularly monastic, but more Tantric in nature and its diffusion was stimulated by the presence of various Mahasiddhas in the region such as the illustrious Tapihritsa and his predecessors dwelling in caves about Mount Kailas and about the lakes to the east in Northern Tibet. Even into this century, Kailas remained an important site of pilgrimage drawing Hindu sadhus and yogis from India. Such a mixed "Buddhist" culture, being both Tantric and shamanic, was suppressed in the eighth century when, at the instigation of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsan, the last king of independent Zhang-zhung, Ligmigya, was ambushed and assassinated when he left his castle of Khyung-dzong on the Dang-ra lake in Northern Tibet. Zhang-zhung and its people were absorbed into the Tibetan empire and disappeared as an independent entity. The Zhang-zhung-pas were pressed into the service of the Tibetan army as it expanded westward into Ladakh and Baltistan. Today the Zhang-zhung-pas survive as the nomad people of Western and Northern Tibet, often possessing the same ancient clan names. But having been converted to the Drigung Kagyudpa school of Buddhism, they have forgotten their ancient heritage. The old caves, once the dwelling places of the Bonpo Mahasiddhas, are now thought to be the domain of ghosts, places to be shunned and avoided. Yet ancient ruins, believed to antedate the Tibetan empire, are still to be seen at Khyung-lung (Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar) west of Kailas and on the shores of the Dang-ra lake to the east in Northern Tibet.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=3

"The first Bön scriptures were translated from the language of Zhang-zhung into Tibetan. The works contained in the Bonpo canon as we know it today are written in Tibetan, but a number of them, especially the older ones, retain the titles and at times whole passages in the language of Zhang-zhung. Until the 8th century Zhang-zhung existed as a separate kingdom, comprising the land to the west of the central Tibetan provinces of (dBus) and Tsang (gTsang) and generally known as Western Tibet, extending over a vast area from Gilgit in the west to the lake of Namtsho (gNam-mtsho) in the east and from Khotan in the north to Mustang in the south. The capital was called Khyunglung Ngulkhar (Khyung-lung dngul-mkhar), the 'Silver Palace of Garuda Valley', the ruins of which lie in the upper Sutlej valley south-west of Mount Kailash. Its people spoke a language classified among the Tibeto-Burmese group of Sino-Tibetan languages. The country was ruled by a dynasty of kings which ended in the 9th century A.D. when the last king, Ligmincha (Lig-min-skya) was assassinated by order of the king of Tibet and Zhang-zhung militarily annexed by Tibet. Since that time Zhang-zhung has become gradually Tibetanized and its language, culture and many of its beliefs have been integrated into the general frame of Tibetan culture. Due to its geographical proximity to the great cultural centres of central Asia such as Gilgit and Khotan, it was through Zhang-zhung that many religious concepts and ideas reached Tibet."......http://shenten.org/en/yungdrung-bon/history

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Indo-Europeans & Indo-Aryans in Bactria (2500 - 1500 BC)

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Bactria was a homeland of Indo-European tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2500–2000 BCE.

"Bakhdhi is the fourth nation in the Avestan Vendidad's list of nations - Airyana Vaeja (homeland of the Aryans) being the first. Bakhdhi is the ancient Avestan name while Balkh is the modern name for both the region and its old capital city. ....During the middle period of Aryan history - as the Aryans moved west from Airyana Vaeja towards present day Iran - Bakhdhi (Balkh as its is known today) became the principle kingdom of the Aryan confederation of kingdoms called Airan, and the eponymous city of Balkh was its capital. As the seat of Aryan rule moved westward to what is the Iranian province of Khorasan today, Balkh became part of greater Khorasan and remained an important regional capital as well as a cultural and trading centre. ...

The Indo-Iranians transferred geographical names from Iran to India as they migrated south about 1400 BC. Indian Sarasvati and Iranian Hara Vaiti for example. (Burrow: 1973..pg 126)...

The author of Vayu Purana uses the name "Kumuda-dvipa" for Kusha-dvipa. Kumuda is also a Puranic name of a mountain forming the northern buttress of Mount Meru, also known as Sumeru (Pamirs). It extended between headwaters of Oxus and Jaxartes. In anterior Epic Age, Kumuda was also the name given to high "table-land" of the Tartary located to north of the Himavata from which the Aryan race may have originally pushed their way southwards into the Indian peninsula and preserved the name in their traditions as a relic of old mountain worship (Thompson). Thus, the Kumuda-dvipa lay close to the Pamirs and, in fact, name Kumuda-dvipa applied to southern territory of Shakadvipa or Scythia. It lay north to Hemavata (Hindukush) and probably comprised Badakshan, Alay Valley/Alay Mountains range, Tien shan, Kerategin and probably extended northwards as far as Zeravshan valley and Fargana.

The Aryans and the Iranians of Bactria, had a lot in common. They spoke the same language, worshiped the forces of nature, such as: Varuna, the shining Vault of Heaven; Mithra, the friendly light of the sun; Vayu; the wind that pushes aside the storms and clears the heaven; Yama, the primeval man, reigning over the blessed souls in paradise. The powers of nature, to them, were the signs of something far more deeply interfused. In their ceremonies they also drunk the sacred Juice, Soma.These two races slowly drifted apart as time went on, for not known reasons.

INDO-EUROPEANS....Aryans. The first Indo-European speakers entered central Europe about 2300 BC. (National Geographic: May 1977, pg 558)....'The appearance of the Indo-Aryans in India around 1500 BC, the waves of invasion into Greece around 1600-1000 BC, and into Anatolia around 2000 BC"..(Lincoln: 1981..pg 181)...'Identifying the Kurgan culture of southern Russia with that of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Weaponry was highly developed: swords, spears, and arrows, which testifies to a distinctive warrior ideology." (Gimbutas: 1976..pg 289)...The Kurgans were on the steppes of southern Russia in 4000 BC....."Indo-Europeans of the Pazyryk culture"...(Kharatidi: 1996..pg 169)...."Cold forced them to leave Aryan em Vaejo. They moved to Sughda (Soghdiana) and Muru (Margiana). Hostile forces made them go to Balkdhi (Balkh), 'the country of lofty banners'. From Balkh they proceeded to Misaya (Nisa, Nasa). Their migration settled Arachosia, Helmund, Panjab to the east and Tus, Gurgan, Rei, and Gilan to the West." (Sykes: 1958..pg 97)

The Proto-Indo-Europeans in this sense likely lived during the late Neolithic, or roughly the 4th millennium BC. Mainstream scholarship places them in the forest-steppe zone immediately to the north of the western end of the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe. Some archaeologists[citation needed] would extend the time depth of PIE to the middle Neolithic (5500 to 4500 BC) or even the early Neolithic (7500 to 5500 BC), and suggest alternative location hypotheses......By the late-3rd millennium BC offshoots of the Proto-Indo-Europeans had reached Anatolia, the Aegean, Western Europe, Central Asia and southern Siberia.

Bakhdhi would come to be known as Bakhtrish during Achaemenian times (675 - 330 BCE), Bactra city and greater Bactria from the Greek version of its name during Alexander's and the Seleucid occupation (330 - c. 246 BCE), and briefly Takharistan or Toharistan after the overthrow of the Seleucids. In 246 BCE, allied with Parthava (Parthia), Bakhdhi (Balkh) was one of the first Aryan nations to revolt against Seleucid rule. The "great and noble city" as Marco Polo called it, was destroyed by first by the Arabs and eventually by Mongols in 1220CE. Today, the site of the kingdom and its ancient city is called Balkh, and the once mighty kingdom has been reduced to the fairly small province in Afghanistan.

Aryans & Achaemenids....(c. 1500 B.C. - 330 B.C.) Apastoral, cityless, people led by heroic warriors riding two-horsed chariots came out of the north....In the sacerdotal writings of the Vedic Aryans, the Rigveda, we read of the Kubha (Kabul) River and know of their passage through Afghanistan sometime around 1500 B.C. In the related Persian hymns of the Avesta, we read of Bakhdi (Balkh) "the beautiful, crowned with banners" and of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the great politico-religious leader who lived in Balkh sometime between 1000 and 600 B.C. The Aryans found the Bactra area ideal for their flocks of sheep and goats. Many settled here and prospered. As the years passed, however, the various Aryan tribes frequently fought among themselves, encouraging the subjugated indigenous tribes to rise in revolt. Predatory raids by bands of horse-riding nomads from across the Oxus added to the turmoil. Keeping the Aryan herdsmen from their grazing lands, the nomads demanded, and began to receive, tribute for grazing rights. Aryan independence seemed doomed. It was then that Zoroaster came forth to exhort the people to unite, in the name of the god Ahuramazda.

"the split occurred when the Aryans were apparently located at around 50 degrees North latitude somewhere in Northern Eurasia. Later, the Iranian-Aryans migrated further Southwards and finally settled in the Iranian Plateau (Persia), while the Indo-Aryans took a different route and finally settled in the Indo-Gangetic Plain of North India. The split was complete, even physically/geographically."
http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/didnot33.html

In Europe the first Indo-European tribes to make significant inroads are the Greeks. They move south into Greece and the Aegean from the 18th century BC...

"Long after the separation of the Indo-Aryans and the Aryo-Iranians the connexion between the two branches remained very intimate. The Indo-Iranians possessed an intimate knowledge of the province of Afghanistan, and there are reasons for believing that no definite line of demar- cation existed between the two branches. It has been noticed in the previous chapters that the Kambojas were included in inter the sixteen great nations of Northern India and that they lived to the west of Gandhara, i.e. Peshawar. They spoke a language which is allied more to the Iranian group of Ian- guages than to the Indian. The country which lies on both banks of the River Oxus (Sanskrit Vakshu) is regarded as a part of India in Sanskrit literature and as a part of Iran in Old Persian literature. Bactria was probably Iranian in speech even in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., but it is called Bahlika, and the people are regarded as Kshatriyas in Indo- Aryan literature. No boundary line between India and Iran was known in Afghanistan, but to the south of that country the borderland which divided the Indo-Aryan from the remnants of the Dravidians in Baluchistan is called Zranka in Persian and Dranga in Sanskrit, both of which mean a boundary. The Indian term Dranganl, which means " fron- tiers " or " boundaries "........http://archive.org/stream/prehistoricancie035069mbp/prehistoricancie035069mbp_djvu.txt

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2013

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Alexander The Great in Bactria ( 334 BC)

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Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégasiii[›] from the Greek ἀλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ἀνήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_expedition_of_Alexander_the_Great_into_Asia..... Nov 329 BC...... Bactra (Balkh, near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan)―Bactria
Spring 328 BC...... Alexandria Oxiane/on the Oxus (perhaps Ai Khanum/Ay Khanom?) (confluence of the Amudar'ja and Kowkcheh rivers, near Deshitiqala (Badakhshan region), northern frontier of Afghanistan )―Bactria
Mar 327 BC....... Sogdian Rock o Rock of Sisimithres (where Oxyartes and Roxana were) (Gissarskiy (or Hissar) Range, Pamiro-Alai region, Tajikistan)―Sogdia
Spring 327 BC....... Bactra (Balkh, near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan)―Bactria

Alexander was more concerned with conquering the Earth than touching the earth...

Alexander adopted Persian royal dress and attempted to impose the Persian court ceremonial of prostration (proskynesis) on the Greeks (to no avail). His attempts at a racial fusion between the Greeks and the Orientals was also futile. He was buried in a crystal coffin in Egypt, location still unknown. His armies mutinied in India, desiring to return to Persia. (Encyclopedia Britannica)...Alexander spent a year in Samarkind (then Marakanda) because 'it was so beautiful'..

Alexander conquered Sogdiana and Iran. However, in the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance. After two years of war Bactria was occupied by the Macedonian empire, but Alexander never successfully subdued the people. After Alexander's death, the Macedonian empire was eventually divided up between generals in Alexander's army. Bactria became a part of the Seleucid Empire, named after its founder, Seleucus I

A trip around the northern province of Balkh is like an odyssey through the centuries, spanning the ancient Persian empire, the conquests of Alexander the Great and the arrival of Islam.The French mission has mapped 135 sites of archaeological interest in the region, best known for the ancient trove found by a Soviet archaeologist in the 1970s.The Bactrian Hoard consisted of exquisite gold jewelry and ornaments from graves of wealthy nomads, dated to the 1st century. It was hidden from the Taliban regime, concealed by its keepers in the vaults of the presidential palace in Kabul, and finally unlocked after the militia's ouster.

BACTRIA.... (Bactra/Tukharistan)...semi mythical empire about 1000 BC....South of Lake Balkash. West of Pamirs....ruled by Greek Seleucids after Alexander

Balkh is a large and magnificent city. It was here that Alexander married the daughter of Darius." (Marco Polo in Waugh: 1984..pg 42)

The Acesines in the journey of Alexander into India is the Chenab, a name derived from the more ancient Chandrabhaga which is traceable in the name Sandabala, by which the river is designated by Ptolemy."..(Bunbury: 1959..pg 502)...

He also tells a most interesting tale of giant gold digging ants of Which Alexander was well aware and had hoped to locate in his eastward drive. The tale had been a source of much fascination over the histories as the author of the following report alludes.......‘This account of animals bringing gold to humans had a compelling, dreamlike quality in the ancient world. It inspired an enduring quest among adventures—from Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC to Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century, nearly 2500 years later. Pliny the Elder claimed that ant’s horns rested in the Temple of Hercules; Suleyman the Magnificent is said to have been given ants "pelts" by the emperor of Persia. Scholars agree that Herodotus placed the home of the ants north of Kasapatyros, the ancient capital of Kashmir—near the Karakorum Mountains where present-day Pakistan, India and China intersect. Herodotus is "the father of history"....

CYRUS....Greek accounts describe the tomb as having been placed in the fertile Pasargadae gardens, surrounded by trees and ornamental shrubs, with a group of Achaemenian protectors (the "Magi"), stationed nearby to protect the edifice from theft or damage....The magi were a group of on-site Zoroastrian observers, located in their separate but attached structure possibly a caravanserai, paid and cared for by the Achaemenid state (by some accounts they received a salary of daily bread and flour, and one sheep payment a day). The magi were placed in charge of maintenance and also prevention of theft. Years later, in the ensuing chaos created by Alexander the Great's invasion of Persia and loss of a centralized authority directing and caring for the Magi, Cyrus the Great's tomb was broken into and most of its luxuries were looted. When Alexander reached the tomb, he was horrified by the manner in which the tomb was treated, and questioned the Magi and put them to court. On some accounts, Alexander's decision to put the Magi on trial was more about his attempt to undermine their influence and his show of power in his newly conquered empire, than a concern for Cyrus's tomb.Regardless, Alexander the Great ordered Aristobulus of Cassandreia to improve the tomb's condition and restore its interior.

Alexander reached a place called Balkh in a region called Bactra which is near the modern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in what is now Northern Afghanistan. In all this time, Alexander the Great had been so busy trying to conquer the world that he had never bothered to take a wife, although he obviously could have had any women he wanted. Some historians claim that Alexander the Great was homosexual. There was a beautiful young Afghan girl in Balkh named Roxanne. Her father was the King of Balkh. Alexander the Great conquered Balkh in 329 BC. Roxanne decided to make the best of the situation. She presented herself to Alexander and offered to become his wife. Alexander accepted and Roxanne became his wife. This was an era in which most kings had many wives, but Roxanne was the only wife that Alexander the Great ever had.

Destruction of the Achaemenian Avesta by Alexander (330 BCE).... Arda Viraf (see above), goes on to state in the Arda Wiraz Namag (Arda Viraf Namah) that Alexander of Macedonia, in 330 BCE, burned the Avestan manuscripts deposited at the royal library at Ishtakhr. Alexander also ordered killed several judges, dasturs, mobeds, herbads (priests) and other upholders of the religion, as well as the competent and wise of the country of Iran (in an attempt to destroy the oral tradition as well).

Bundahishn 33.14: "Then, during the reign of Darius son of Darius, the emperor Alexander came to Iranshahr, scurrying from Arum (Europe), killed king Darius, destroyed all the families of rulers, magi, and public men of Iranshahr, extinguished an immense number of sacred fires, seized the commentary (zand) of the Revelation of Mazda-worship, and sent it to Arum, burned the Avesta, and divided Iranshahr among ninety petty rulers."

Mahankard (c. 750 CE. Translated from Middle Persian to Arabic): Alexander destroyed the original ancient Persian books after having them translated into Greek. (Other accounts below state that only certain topics/books were translated and the others, e.g. religious, were destroyed without translation.)

Ibn Qutayba (d. 889 Arabic): Alexander conquered the kingdom of Iran and burned the books of their religion.

Sahristaniha-e Iran (Middle Persian): Alexander destroyed the Avesta which was stored in writing in Samarqand. (We note here that the written Avesta was stored in what may be considered the regional capital of the Eastern Iranian (Persian) Empire.

Hamza al-Isfahani, wr. 961 [Eight collated translations of the Middle Persian Khwaday Namag (Khoda Namah also used by Ferdowsi) to Arabic] & supported by the account of Musa ibn Isa al-Kisrawi: Alexander, jealous of the unparalled knowledge of the Persian nation, first translated what he needed from the Persian, then destroyed the rest, killing the Magi too. Although he destroyed their books on religion, he translated their books dealing with philosophy, astrology, medicine, and agriculture from Persian into Greek and Egyptian, which he sent to Alexandria (cf. our page on Ostanes - Persian Sage in Egypt). This account confirms that the Avesta and supporting texts were encyclopaedic in knowledge as further confirmed by the Dinkard's summary of the 21 books of the Avesta.

Tansar-Nama (Persian translated from Middle Persian): Alexander destroyed the Avesta.

The Avesta is all that remains of the 21 Nards, and these were only part of an even larger collection of works that existed before Alexander destroyed the sacred texts of the Persians, as Diodorus, the historian, relates. The Zoroastrian bible was probably complete by about 400 BC. The Persian archives were held at Persepolis yet Alexander uncharacteristically burnt the city and murdered many of Persia’s leading scholars, though they had willingly surrendered exoecting mercy. The Dinkard, a ninth century Persian work says there were only ever two copies of Zoroaster’s monumental work, one of which was burned and the other was confiscated by the Greeks.

Alexander was not normally disposed to offending the people he conquered. He had just captured Babylon where the priests of Marduk welcomed him, and he had showed respect to them, consulting them on the proper way to worship the Babylonian god, Marduk, taking him by the hand, and offering animal sacrifices to him. He ordered Marduk’s statues and temples to be restored. Earlier he had honoured the Jewish god, and the God, Amun, in Egypt. Perhaps Alexander was merciful to those who surrendered without trouble but, after the battle of Issus, Darius was practically offering surrender to Alexander, so the brutality must have been in revenge for the Greek war with Xerxes.

"Olympias, the mother of Alexander was involved in the enthusiastic Orphic rites, and the wild worship of Bacchus, (upon which account they were called Clodones, and Mimallones,) imitated in many things the practices of the Edonian and Thracian women about Mount Haemus......The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the individual to return to a natural state. It also provided some liberation for those marginalized by Greek society: women, slaves and foreigners. In their final phase the Mysteries shifted their emphasis from a chthonic, underworld orientation to a transcendental, mystical one, with Dionysus changing his nature accordingly (similar to the change in the cult of Shiva). By its nature as a mystery religion reserved for the initiated, many aspects of the Dionysian cult remain unknown and were lost with the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism; our knowledge is derived from descriptions, imagery and cross-cultural studies......Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great....By Elizabeth Carney

Alexandria's founded by Alexander the Great (by year BC): 334 Alexandria in Troia (Turkey) - 333 Alexandria at Issus/Alexandrette (Iskanderun, Turkey) - 332 Alexandria of Caria/by the Latmos (Alinda, Turkey) - 331 Alexandria Mygdoniae - 331 Alexandria (Egypt) - 330 Alexandria of the Prophthasia/in Dragiana/Phrada (Farah, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Areia (Herat, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Caucasus (Begram, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria of the Paropanisades (Ghazni, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria Eschate or Ultima (Khodjend, Tajikistan) - 329 Alexandria on the Oxus (Ai-Khanoum, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria in Margiana (Merv, Turkmenistan) - 327 Alexandria Nicaea (on the Hydaspes, India) - 327 Alexandria Bucephala (on the Hydaspes, India) - 325 Alexandria Sogdia - 325 Alexandria Rambacia (Bela, Pakistan) - 325 Alexandria Oreitide - 325 Alexandria in Opiene (confluence of Indus & Acesines, India) - 325 Alexandria on the Indus - 324 Alexandria in Susiana/Charax (Spasinou Charax on the Tigris, Iraq) - 325 Alexandria in Carminia (Gulashkird, Iran) - ?Alexandria of Carmahle? (Kahnu)

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2013

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Mithraism & The Eye of Mithra (1400 BC)

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

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Mithraic Iconography and Ideology..... Leroy A. Campbell....Publisher, E. J. Brill, 1969.
"the most important of the ancient Indo-Iranian Deities in many ways is Mithra, who represents the Sun. In the Veda He is very intimately associated with Asura Varuna. In the Avesta, however, He is associated more with the two Guardian-Judges of departed souls than with Ahuramazda. He awaits the Souls on the other side of death and sits in Judgment over them by the side of Sraosha and Rashnu. He dwells on the top of the Hara-Bareza (Alborz) Mountain. In the Avesta He is the Great Being who is the Wise Ruler, the Loving Guardian and the Impartial Judge of humanity, a conception which is essentially ethical. In the Veda too His position is similar. In later days the cult of Mithra attained great importance esoteric school of occultism, which in its turn profoundly influenced the later Roman thought as well as earlier Christianity.

Alabaster "Eye Idols," Eye Temple (Tell Brak), 3,200 BC.....Tell Brak is one of the world’s earliest cities, which reached urban scale and complexity by the early 4th millennium BC and retained political importance and economic power through most of the 3rd millennium BC... "eye idols" like those at Tell Brak.... they are present at Susa as well."

"The Mithraic tradition thrived in Asia Minor and at it's center at Trebizond the Greeks identified him with Helios. It was here that Mithra acquired the pointed cap. See the Greek artists of the school of Perganum." (Hawkes: 1962..pg 182)...Mithras entered the Roman world in the 1st century BC. The great sun temple to Jupiter-Baal as the Sun, at Baaleck (Heliopolis), built during the 2nd century AD..."Plato idealized Sun worship and called the Sun the offspring of the first god." (Hawkes: 1962..pg 198)...

Before Islamization of the region, the inhabitants of Khorasan had mostly practiced Zoroastrianism but at different stages there were also various adherents of Manichaeism, Sun worshippers (Mithraism), Nestorianism, Paganism, Shamanism, Buddhism and a small number of Jews too...

"Mithra is young. His eye is the sun. The rays of the sun are his arms. He wears glistening garments. His abode is golden. He is a king and a universal monarch. Mithra is ever waking and watches in darkness." (Gershevitch: 1959 pg 4, 31)...

"if the god Mithras of the Roman religion was actually the Iranian god Mithra, we should expect to find in Iranian mythology a story in which Mithra kills a bull. However, the fact is that no such Iranian myth exists: in no known Iranian text does Mithra have anything to do with killing a bull.

."After the reign of Alexander the Great, Mithra came to be worshipped in all the Oriental Kingdoms. By the 2nd Century AD it had spread throughout the Greek and Roman empires. (Canney: pg 244)

INDO-IRANIANS...."Until the year 1400 BC, the Iranians and Hindus were still united and had several gods with similar names. One of these was Mithra." (Canney: pg 244)

Tibetan terms:
khra hrig: wide open eyes...
chu bur mig: physical eyes...
che re bltas: looking directly...
lta stang: gaze...
spyan: eyes...
mig khra hrig ge: piercing eyes...
zur mig blta: flirtatious eyes...
gzi: onyx stone with eyes...
lha yi mig: divine eye...

"When we see with our eyes in the state of contemplation what we are really seeing is our own wisdom." (Wangyal: 1993..pg 89)...

"Listen while you keep motionless command of your organs of sense. Even the eyelids may not be moved." (Francke: 1950..pg 181)...

"In Shinto, the ancestors watch their descendants with their spirit eyes."..(Jinja:1958..pg 24)...

"Mithra.....Images of Lord Sun Mihir in India are shown wearing a central Asian dress, complete with boots. The same image of Mithra is depicted in the huge mural paintings in Bamiyan’s Mahāyāna Buddhism site (300-400 AD). Interestingly Bamiyan’s Mithra has strong Hellenistic tint. For example Mithra is accompanied by the twin gods Cautes and Cautopates as Roman Mithras." (Maeda. The Golden City Bamiyan Revived by Hi-vision Digital; Odani. “The Colossal Buddha and Maitreya Cult in Bamiyan”)

For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of this god began around 2800 years ago in Persia, where it was soon moved west and became imbedded with Babylonian doctrines. There is mention of Mithra or Mitra (et al) before 2800, but only as a minor diety and without much information. It appears to be after 2800 when Mithra is transformed and starts to play a major role among the gods.

The Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves, according to Porphyry, the third century neoplatonic philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian creation myth. Ceremonies took place in complete darkness and involved the Mithraic Eye.

"At the pleasant bank of the Candrabhaga, a city named for Sambha is situated...There lies the abode of the Sun God (Arka) who is standing there in the form of Mitra with the Mitra eye." (Humbach: 1978..pg 236)....

gYUNG-DRUNG BKOD-GLING...."Country in which the swastika is regulated. The Iranian swastika represented the sun and in contrast to the Indian swastika, extends its arms counter-clockwise. This is evidently the region of Mithras, the Persian God of Light, whose cult later penetrated into Tibet as the Bon religion." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 571)

Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother once worshipped as a fertility goddess before the hierarchical reformation. Anahita was said to have conceived the Saviour from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. Mithra's ascension to heaven was said to have occurred in 208 B.C.E., 64 years after his birth. Parthian coins and documents bear a double date with this 64 year interval.

"Samba left the royal residence of Dvaravati on the edge of the salt sea and journeyed to the Candrabhaga River in the Panjab to the sacred bathing place of Mitravana, named for Mitra, one of the twelve Adityas. Until this time the Sun God had been worshipped by means of holy circles (mandala). Samba invited eighteen families of the Magas of Sakadvipa to Mitravana where he established for them the city of Sambapura. (The site of Sambapura is the present day Multan...Mulasthana: basic place, base)...(Acta: 1978...pg 239)...

Mitra and Varuna are throned in heaven ; the other gods, so far as they are not identified with individual objects, wander through the world at will. "We hear nothing of temples of the gods, and it is almost certain that the hymns recognize no idols ; the gods were them- selves present in the different phenomena of the world.....http://www17.us.archive.org/stream/cosmologyigveda00wallgoog/cosmologyigveda00wallgoog_djvu.txt

It was from Bactria that came prophet Zarathustra (Zardasht). Another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient goddess Anahid, or Anailtis- Tanata in Persian and Ananita in the Avesta hymns. The temple was so rich that often it attracted the needy Syrian kings who sat out to plunder it. In her name and honor, in Armemia, girls prostituted themselves. Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. Artaxerxes Mnemon of the Sassanids was among her devotees. She is also associated with the Persian Mithra. Her association with Zoroaster adds to her popularity.

The Aryans and the Iranians of Bactria, had a lot in common. They spoke the same language, worshiped the forces of nature, such as: Varuna, the shining Vault of Heaven; Mithra, the friendly light of the sun; Vayu; the wind that pushes aside the storms and clears the heaven; Yama, the primeval man, reigning over the blessed souls in paradise. The powers of nature, to them, were the signs of something far more deeply interfused. In their ceremonies they also drunk the sacred Juice, Soma.These two races slowly drifted apart as time went on, for not known reasons.

Just to the west of Zhang-zhung there once existed the vast Kushana empire ....... an area in which Indian Buddhism and the Bon teachings interacted with various strands of the great Iranian and Central Asian religions-- Zoroastrian, Zurvanist, Mithraist, Manichean, as well as Indian Shaivism and Nestorian Christianity.......

PAMIRS or Hindu Kush: Numerous city-states and fortresses with names beginning with 'Kala' ('Quallah'), all traces of which seem to have 'completely disappeared'...A extremely rich mixture of Shambhalians of all spiritual and cultural traditions....The entire region was considered a "Pagan Enclave" by the Arab mapmakers. Tremendous silk route influences. Crossroads between the Indian Tantric traditions moving northward and the Vedic Mithraic traditions of Persia. Tazik. Bon moved into Tibet via this region. Padmasambhava. Early teachings of Dzogchen in the Bon and Nyingma traditions appeared here in the 8th century AD.

earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the first century B.C.: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 B.C. a large band of pirates based in Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras. The earliest physical remains of the cult date from around the end of the first century A.D., and Mithraism reached its height of popularity in the third century. In addition to soldiers, the cult's membership included significant numbers of bureaucrats and merchants. Women were excluded. Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism.

gYUNG-DRUNG BKOD-GLING...."Country in which the swastika is regulated. The Iranian swastika represented the sun and in contrast to the Indian swastika, extends its arms counter-clockwise. This is evidently the region of Mithras, the Persian God of Light, whose cult later penetrated into Tibet as the Bon religion." (Kuznetsov: 1970..pg 571)

Another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient Iranian goddess, Anahit (in Pahlavi or Middle-Persian) and Anahita (Ânâhitâ) in the Avesta hymns. The temple was so rich that often it attracted the needy Syrian kings who sat out to plunder it. Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the emperors of Achaemenid dynasty was among her devotees. She is also associated with the Persian Mithra.

Before Islamization of the region, the inhabitants had mostly practiced Zoroastrianism but at different stages there were also various adherents of Manichaeism, Sun worshippers (Mithraism), Nestorianism, Paganism, Shamanism, Buddhism and a small number of Jews too.

Belief in the great power of Mithra was called in question by Zarathushtra or Zoroaster, the great prophet who worked mainly in Eastern Iran and who lived some time between 1000 and 600 B.C. (The exact date is very widely disputed, but in the present state of our knowledge the latter date is the more probable.) It is a major drawback that his character has largely to be reconstructed from the Gathas, devotional hymns attributed to the prophet and written in an archaic and abstruse Eastern Iranian dialect which is extremely difficult to translate. It is, however, an established fact that Zarathushtra was a great reformer, who attempted to transform the established polytheism into a monotheist pattern with Ahuramazda as the sole and supreme god, and so found himself obliged to relegate Mithra to the background. He also attacked the forms of worship of his time, forbidding blood sacrifice such as the bull-offering and denying to his followers the ecstatic enjoyment of the spirituous Haoma. This measure in particular dealt a heavy blow to the Mithra cult, for Mithra was (as we shall see) closely associated with the bull, whose blood, mixed with the Haoma, bestowed immortality.

Mithras in Europe The circumstances which brought the god at last to Europe after hundreds of years are indeed strange. According to the historian Plutarch, who lived in the first century A.D., the Romans became acquainted with Mithras through pirates from Cilicia, a province of Asia Minor. These were the pirates who constituted such a threat to Rome until Pompey drove them from the seas....Plutarch writes of the pirates: 'They brought to Olympus in Lycia strange offerings and performed some secret mysteries, which still in the cult of Mithras, first made known by them [the pirates]'. In the middle of the second century A.D. the historian Appian adds that the pirates came to know of the mysteries from the troops who were left behind by the defeated army of Mithridates Eupator. It is well established that all kinds of Eastern races were represented in that army....There are some well-known monuments associated with Mithras in the pirates' homeland in the mountainous religions of Cilicia, and recently an altar was discovered in Anazarbos which had been consecrated by Marcus Aurelius as 'Priest and Father of Zeus-Helios-Mithras'. The god was also worshipped in Tarsus, the capital of the province, as we know from coins of the Emperor Gordian III which bear a picture of the bull-slayer.

"The sun in the Rigveda is known as the eye of Mithra. The sovereign sky has an eye in the long solar ray that penetrates the world cave."..(Campbell: 1968..pg 99)..

"According to Kuznetsov, Bon was introduced to Tibet in the fifth century BC, when there occurred a mass migration of Iranians from Sogdhiana in north-east Iran to the northern parts of Tibet. They brought with them an ancient form of polytheistic Mithraism and the Araimic alphabet, named after Aramaiti, the Iranian Earth Goddess." .....June Campbell: "Traveller in Space"...

"Mitra supports earth and sky. Mitra regardeth men with the unwinking eye." (Keith: 1967..pg 226)... "His rays bear up the one who knoweth all, the sun for all to see, the eye of Mitra." (Keith: 1967..pg 63)....

"The relationship between daena (the medium of sight) and xratu (a mental sphere). Possession of daena/vision is manifested with the action of an eye enhanced with the energy of xratu, displaying the features of 'rising'. Vision derives from the possession of the 'asna xratu', which is itself the faculty of vision of 'Jan', whence the eye is ordered." (Piras: 1996...pg 14)...

"The Sun as the All Seeing Eye" Hawkes: 1962..pg 87...

Tel Brak Temple in Syria...staring divine eyes.....Eye Goddesses ......"Radiant divine eye, compound eye and sun symbol"(Gimbutas: 1989 pg 54-56)...

"Underground Mithraic temple .....The typical mithraeum was a small rectangular subterranean chamber, on the order of 75 feet by 30 feet with a vaulted ceiling. An aisle usually ran lengthwise down the center of the temple, with a stone bench on either side two or three feet high on which the cult's members would recline during their meetings. On average a mithraeum could hold perhaps twenty to thirty people at a time. At the back of the mithraeum at the end of the aisle was always found a representation-- usually a carved relief but sometimes a statue or painting-- of the central icon of Mithraism: the so-called tauroctony or "bull-slaying scene" in which the god of the cult, Mithras, accompanied by a dog, a snake, a raven, and a scorpion, is shown in the act of killing a bull. Other parts of the temple were decorated with various scenes and figures. There were many hundreds-- perhaps thousands-- of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire. The greatest concentrations have been found in the city of Rome itself, and in those places in the empire (often in the most distant frontiers) where Roman soldiers-- who made up a major segment of the cult's membership-- were stationed.

Trungpa Rinpoche incorporated elements from numerous traditions into the Shambhala Path that he thought would be beneficial to practitioners. Similar elements in the Bön religion, Shenlha Okar, Nine Brothers Who Created Existence, Werma, Dralha and Lhasang are of interest. From Confucianism comes a framework of heaven, earth, and man for understanding the proper relationship between different elements of compositions of all kinds. From Taoism comes the use of feng shui and other incorporations. From the Shinto tradition comes the Sun Goddess and the Sacred Mirror, the Kami shrine at RMSC. From the Manichaeans, the vegetarian diet is of interest...Trungpa talked about Mithra. Was curious about Native American wisdom. Jack Niland, an early student of Chögyam Trungpa, relates the tale of Chögyam Trungpa and the I Ching - that he “used the I Ching for everything...there are hexagrams everywhere if you can see them.”

As Chögyam Trungpa says in Great Eastern Sun, The Wisdom of Shambhala, p 133: "Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism… the Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That’s why we call it the Shambhala kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it. That’s why we are here."

According to B.A. Litvinsky, the names of the Hephtalite rulers used in the Shahnameh are Iranian. According to Xavier Tremblay, one of the Hephthalite rulers was named "Khingila", which has the same root as the Sogdian word xnγr and the Wakhi word xiŋgār, meaning "sword". The name "Mihirakula" is thought to be derived from mithra-kula which is Iranian for "the Sun family", with kula having the same root as Pashto kul, "family". "Toramāna" is also considered to have an Iranian origin. Accordingly, in Sanskrit, mihira-kula would mean the "kul (family) of mihira (Sun)", although mihira is not purely Sanskrit but is a borrowing from Middle Iranian mihr. Janos Harmatta gives the translation "Mithra's Begotten" and also supports the Iranian theory.

The westward movement of the western group of Aryans can be observed to have reached the Semitic lands by the 18th century B.C.E. It is postulated that they migrated westward in the role of mercenaries, as the term Marianni - an Aryan word meaning warriors - can be observed in Egyptian and Hittite texts classifying them as a ruling military class; and documents from the 16th century B.C.E. in Mesapotamia and Syria disclose Iranian names. Morever, the dynasty of the Mitanni kingdom, situated in northern Mesapotamia, can be proved to have Aryan origins by the names of its kings (Artatama, Shutarna, Artasumara, Dushratta) and in a treaty betwixt the Mitanni and Hittites dating to the 15th century B.C.E. the gods Mitra and Varuna, Indra and the Nasatyas are invoked by the former. For the study of Mithraism, this data is vital, as it is one of the earliest recordings concerning the god Mithra, and it clearly indicates his Aryan origin: Mitra (later to be transformed into Mithra) being the Sanskrit counterpart of the Old Persian Mihr (meaning: friend or contract) both derived from the Iranian (Aryan) root Mei meaning "exchange."

In Mithraic Studies it stated that Mithras was born as an adult from solid rock, "wearing his Phrygian cap, issues forth from the rocky mass. As yet only his bare torso is visible. In each hand he raises aloft a lighted torch and, as an unusual detail, red flames shoot out all around him from the petra genetrix." David Ulansey speculates that this was a belief derived from the Perseus' myths which held he was born from an underground cavern.

"There is reference to Mithra as being born of "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Lord Mithras". Anahita was said to have conceived the Mithras from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of Lake Hamun in the Persian province of Sistan. In other, contradictory traditions, he is also born without any sex but from the rock wall of a cave. One must know that there were separate Mithra traditions that may have changed and been adapted over time. This information comes from a Temple that bears this inscription dedicated to Anahita and dated to about 200 B.C.E.......http://archi-west.tripod.com/anahita.htm

Mithraism....."Before the time of Constantine the ancient world was a virtual cornucopia of different religions and cults that existed all over the Roman Empire and eastward into China and India. As a result of these competing doctrines "when Christianity was only one of several dozen foreign Eastern cults struggling for recognition in Rome, the religious dualism and dogmatic moral teaching of Mithraism set it apart from other sects, creating a stability previously unknown in Roman paganism" (Mithras in the Roman Empire). The striking parallels to Christianity in Mithraism have long been pointed out, for Mithras was said to have been: born of a virgin birth, had twelve followers or disciples, was killed and resurrected, performed miracles, and was known as mankind's savior who was called the light of the world and his virgin birth occurred on December 25. Indeed, the resemblances are so striking in that all of the Christian mysteries were known nearly five hundred years before the birth of Christ that later church fathers claimed that Satan had created all of this prior to Christ's birth so as to confuse the laity.".....http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/christ_constantine_sol_invictus.html

"....... Iranian influence upon Zen Buddhism.....Characteristic elements of Zen Buddhism, i. e. the founder of Zen, Kegon-kyō, the Vijnāna-vādin, Mādhyamaka philosophies, the Prajñāpāramitā literatures and Ten Bull Pictures are examined in the context introduced by to show their Persian connection....... http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/zen_buddhism_and_persian_culture_v1.pdf

"The Proto-Indo-Iranian word *mitra- (nominative *mitras) means "[that which] binds", deriving from the root mi- "to bind", with the "tool suffix" -tra- (cf. man-tra-). This particular meaning is preserved in the mithra "covenant" written in Avestan, the old Eastern Iranian liturgical language used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrian sacred scripture of the Avesta. In Sanskrit, mitra literally means "friend", one of the aspects of binding and alliance. Following the prehistoric cultural split of Indian and Iranian cultures, names descended from *mitra were used for the various religious entities, as follows......Indic Mitra(in Sanskrit Mitrá-, Mitrá?). In the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE) Mitra was a prominent deity (asura) of the Rigveda, a collection of hymns to various Indian deities, who had a distinguished relationship with Varuna, chief of the gods. Vedic Mitra was the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings. The first extant record of Indo-Aryan Mitra, in the form mi-it-ra-, is in the inscribed peace treaty of c. 1400 BCE between Hittites and the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni in the area southeast of Lake Van in Asia Minor. In the inscription Mitra appears together with four other Indo-Aryan divinities as witnesses and keepers of the pact.".....http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml

"Iranian Mithra (in Avestan Mira-, Miro). In Zoroastrianism, Mithra was a yazata mentioned in the Zoroastrian sacred scripture of the Avesta and a member of the trinity of ahuras, protectors of asha/arta ("truth" or "[that which is] right"). Mithra's standard appellation was "of wide pastures" suggesting omnipresence: Mithra is "truth-speaking, ...with a thousand ears,...with ten thousand eyes, high, with full knowledge, strong, sleepless, and ever awake." (Mihr Yasht (Hymn to Mithra) 10.7). As preserver of covenants, Mithra was also protector and keeper of all aspects of interpersonal relationships, such as friendship and love. Related to his position as protector of truth, Mithra was a judge (ratu), ensuring that individuals who broke promises or were not righteous (artavan) were not admitted to paradise. As in the Indo-Iranian tradition, Mithra was associated with (the divinity of) the sun but originally distinct from it. Mithra was closely associated with the feminine yazata Aredvi Sura Anahita, the hypostasis of knowledge.".....http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml

"Graeco-Roman Mithras.The name Mithras is the Greek nominative form of Mithra, the yazata that, as previously mentioned, served as mediator between Ahura Mazda and the earth, the guarantor of human contracts. In Mithraism, however, much was added to the original elements of Mitra/Mithra, although the Mithraist emphasis on astrology strongly suggests a synthesis of beliefs with the earlier star-oriented Mesopotamian or Anatolian religions. At first identified with the Sun-god Helios by the Greeks, the syncretic Mithra-Helios was transformed into the figure Mithras during the 2nd century BCE, probably at Pergamon....Pergamon (Ancient Greek: τὸ Πέργαμον or ἡ Πέργαμος), or Pergamum, was an ancient Greek city in Aeolis."....http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml

"Birth of a God. There are several competing stories regarding Mithras’ birth. Some say that he was born, or reborn, from a rock (the petra genetrix) or a tree typically with the snake Oroboros wrapped around it. A bronze image of Mithras emerging from an egg-shaped zodiac ring, the "Cosmic Egg", was found associated with a temple on Hadrian's Wall (now at the University of Newcastle), while other stories have him being born of a virgin. An inscription from Rome suggests that Mithras may have been seen as the Orphic creator-god Phanes who emerged from the world egg at the beginning of time, bringing the universe into existence. This view is reinforced by a bas-relief at the Estense Museum in Modena, Italy, which shows Phanes emerging from an egg, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, in an image very similar to that at Newcastle. All stories agree that Mithras was born on December 255 - a date celebrated as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun”. Interestingly, some depictions of his birth show shepherds in attendance, while others show only two torchbearers, but regardless the stories all concur that it was Ahura Mazda who arranged for his creation.".....http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml

"Franz Cumont's Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra was published in 1894-1900 (the English translation followed in 1903).....Worship took place in a temple known to modern scholars as a "mithraeum" (Latin, from Greek mithraion). A mithraeum was either an adapted natural cave or cavern, or an artificial building constructed to imitate a cavern, to thus resemble Mithras' birthplace. As alluded to above, it is commonly believed that the cave in Mithraism imagery represents the cosmos, and the rock is the cosmos seen from the outside. Wherever possible, purpose-built mithraea were constructed within rooms inside or below an existing building, e.g. a private home or a bathhouse. Mithraea were thus intended to be dark and windowless. A mithraeum may be identified by its separate entrance or vestibule, its "cave", called the spelaeum or spelunca, with raised benches along the side walls for the ritual meal, and its sanctuary at the far end, often in a recess, before which the pedestal-like altar stood. Mithraea following this basic plan are scattered over much of the Empire's former area, particularly where the legions were stationed along the frontiers. Along Hadrian's Wall, for example, three mithraea have been identified at Housesteads, Carrawburgh and Rudchester. Finds from these sites are in the University of Newcastle's Museum of Antiquities, where a mithraeum has been recreated. Excavations in London have uncovered the remains of a Mithraic temple near the centre of the once walled Roman settlement, on the bank of the Walbrook stream. Mithraea have also been found along the Danube and Rhine river frontier, in the province of Dacia (where in 2003 a temple was found in Alba-Iulia) and as far afield as Numidia in North Africa."....http://www.romanarmy.net/mithras.shtml

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2012

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Early Buddhism in Balkh (563 BC)

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"Further connections between Buddhism and Iran exist (Jorfi 1994). In fact, the Pali legend claims that the historical Buddha had two Iranian disciples. Further, Buddha's physician Jivaka was taught by Iranians at Taxila ("India and Iran: A Dialogue", paper by Prof. Lokesh Chandra, cited in Embassy 2005) The Zoroastrian doctrine of the Saviour (Saosyant) probably influenced the idea of the future Buddha, which later became part of the orthodox belief ("The Wonder that was India" by A L Basham, 1967, p 276, cited in Embassy 2005) Likewise, the Buddhist concept of 16 Mahajanapadas (Great States) (viz: Kasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Vajji or Vriji, Malla, Chedi, Vatsa or Vamsa, Kuru, Panchala, Machcha or Matsya, Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, and Kamboja) was probably inspired by the original Zoroastrian concept of 16 Aryan lands of the Videvdad (viz. 1. Airyana Vaego, 2. Sughdha, 3. Mouru or Margiana, 4. Bakhdhi or Bactria, 5. Nisaya, 6. Haroyu, 7. Vaekereta, 8. Urva, 9. Khnenta, 10. Harahvaiti or Arachosia, 11. Haetumant, 12. Ragha, 13. Kakhra or Khurasan ?, 14. Varena, 15. Hapta-Hindawa or Punjab, 16. Rangha). Later, Mani, a scion of the Ashkanian family, founded an original set of beliefs and claimed to be an incarnation of the Buddha."....http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Culture/impact/shamasastry_India_under_iranians.htm

Most histories of the Buddha now date his birth as several centuries later: 563 BC is a commonly given date.

"There are two versions of when the Kalachakra was taught by the Buddha. The first maintains that it was taught during the full moon of the fourth month in the year of the Buddha's death at the age of eighty. This is the variant reported by Csoma. Another version claims it was taught by Buddha one year after his enlightenment, at the age of thirty-five, on the Full Moon of Caitra (March-April), the first month of the year according to what would become the Kalachakra calendar. Most Shambhalists now seems to favor this latter interpretation. The current Dalai Lama would also seem to hold to this latter view, although he also avers that it would make more sense that the Kalachakra, being the pinnacle of his teachings (in the opinion of some) it would have been taught at the end of his teaching career and not at the beginning.

"According to a Buddhist legend preserved in Pali (an ancient Prakrit language, derived from Sanskrit, which is the scriptural and liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism), the first instance of Buddhism entering Iran seems to have been during the life of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni (roughly 5/6th century BCE. The legend speaks of two Merchant brothers from Bactria (modern day Afghanistan) who visited the Buddha in his eighth week of enlightenment, became his disciples and then returned to Balkh (major city of Bactria) to build temples dedicated to him. Whatever the historical validity of this story, there is strong evidence to show that Balkh did become a major Buddhist region and remained so up until the Arab Muslim invasion of the 7th century.

"Trapusa and Bahalika from Balkh in Afghanistan, are attributed to be the first two lay disciples of the Buddha."....http://www.buddhismplace.com/topics/barmakids/trapusa-and-bahalika/90625581

The first account of Trapusa and Bahalika appears in the vinaya section of the Tripiṭaka where they offer the Buddha his first meal after his enlightment, take refuge in the Buddha and Dharma, ( the Sangha still not having been formed) and become the Buddha's first lay disciples.

Huang Tsang says that Buddhism was bought to Central Asia by Trapusa and Bahalika (referring to Balkh) two merchants who offered food to the Buddha shortly after his enlightment.

The era of Trapusa and Bahalika is related to the life period of the Historical Buddha .The time of his(Buddha's) birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE,but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE.

Huang Tsang recounts, having become his first disciples Trapusa and Bahalika wished his leave to return home, they asked the Buddha for something by which they could remember and honour him in his absence. The Buddha gave them eight of his hairs as relics. They made golden caskets for the relics and took them to their own city (Balkh) where they enshrined them in a stupa by the city gate. Huang Tsang recounts that theirs was the first ever Buddhist Stupa to be made and that the Buddha had first to instruct them how to erect it by folding his three robes into squares piling them up and then topping them off with his inverted bowl....John S. Strong draws attention to the important tradition that brings together several firsts ; first lay disciples of the Buddha to take refuge in him and his teachings; first meritorious food offering to the Buddha after his enlightenment; first Buddhist's monk's bowl; first words of Dharma given by the blessed one; first relics of Gautama after his attainment of Buddhahood; the first Stupa of the Buddha here on earth.

....did the Buddha in his lifetime actually teach the Kalachakra to the King of Shambhala, and did the teachings remain in Shambhala until they were introduced into India centuries later, as many traditionalists, including the current Dalai Lama, maintain

"There is also a tradition that Dzogchen,and Padmasambhava, come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from this same Tun huang site identify Oddiyana as "Shamis en Balkh" in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist. This is the town oft associated with Padmasambhava, and Rabia and Rumi as well. Although Padmasambhava is usually thought to be Indian, it is possible that he is from the Afghanistan region also associated with his name.

Elevated/raised is Persian bala and sham is Persian candle. ...CANDLE (Pers.-Ar. šamʿ). The Arabic word (Ar. also šamaʿ) literally means “beeswax” (Ebn Manẓūr; Dehḵodā), for which Persian uses mūm (Dehḵodā, Moʾīn, s.v.).

The chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang reported that Buddhism was widely practiced by the Huns rulers of Balkh who claimed descent from Indian royalties.

In literature, Balkh has been described as Balhika, Valhika or Bahlika. Balkh town became popular to other Buddhist countries because of two great Buddhist monks of Afghanistan....Tapassu and Bhallika, the first two disciples of Buddha. There are two stupas over their relics. As per a popular legend, Buddhism was introduced in Balkh by Bhallika, disciple of Buddha and the city derives its name from him. He was a merchant of the region and had come to Bodhgaya. First Vihara at Balkh was built for Bhallika when he returned home after becoming a Buddhist monk. Xuanzang visited Balkh in 630 when it was a flourishing centre of Hinayana Buddhism. People called the city ‘Little Rajagriha’ since it housed many sacred relics.

According to Memoirs of Xuanzang, there were about a hundred Buddhist convents in the city or its vicinity at the time of his visit there in the 7th century. There were 30,000 monks and a large number of stupas and other religious monuments. The most remarkable stupa was the Navbahara (Sanskrit, Now Vihara: New Monastery), which possessed a very grand statue of Buddha. Shortly before the Arabic conquest, the monastery became a Zoroastrian fire-temple. A curious notice of this building is found in the writings of Arabian geographer Ibn Hawqal, an Arabian traveler of the 10th century, who describes Balkh as built of clay, with ramparts and six gates, and extending half a parasang. He also mentions a castle and a mosque.

Padmasambhava reawakened a particular fusion of Manichaeism and Buddhism in the 8th century in Tibet. This revived synthesis became known as Vajrayana or Thunderbolt. The highest vehicle of Buddhism, also known as the Third Vehicle, is Vajrayana....http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id17.html

It is believed by some that the Prophet Mani was the source of the Dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Others are of the opinion that Padmasambhava is the source of the Buddhist Dzogchen teachings in Tibet. In either case, it is evident that Dzogchen was introduced to Tibet by way of Central Asia. The Dzogchen teachings are the heart of the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism, with which they are primarily associated. There is also a tradition that Dzogchen, and Padmasambhava, come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from the archeological site in Dunhuang identify Oddiyana as Shamis en Balkh in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist.

Navbahar, the main monastery at Balkh became the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia. The Tokharian monk Ghoshaka was one of the compilers of the Vaibhashaka (a sub-division of the Sarvastivada School of Hinayana) commentaries on abhidharma and established the Western Vaibhashika (Balhika) School. Navbahar emphasized the study of primarily of the Vaibhashika (Tibetan: bye-brag smra-ba) abhidharma, admitting only monks who had already composed texts of the topic. Navbahar also housed a tooth relic of the Buddha, making it one of the main centers of Buddhist pilgrimage along the Silk Route from China to India.

The word Navbehar (or its variants) appears in several locations of present-day Iran, a sign of the extent of Buddhist impact in ancient times. The Arch of Nawbahar can still be seen today near Balkh.

The many Buddhist references in the Persian literature of the period also provide evidence of Islamic–Buddhist cultural contact. Persian poetry, for example, often used the simile for palaces that they were "as beautiful as a Nowbahar (Nava Vihara)." Further, at Navbahar and Bamiyan, Buddha images, particularly of Maitreya, the future Buddha, had 'moon discs' or halo iconographically represented behind or around their heads. This led to the poetic depiction of pure beauty as someone having "the moon-shaped face of a Buddha." Thus, 11th-century Persian poems, such as Varqe and Golshah by Ayyuqi, use the word budh with a positive connotation for "Buddha," not with its second, derogatory meaning as "idol." It implies the ideal of asexual beauty in both men and women. Such references indicate that either Buddhist monasteries and images were present in these Iranian cultural areas at least through the early Mongol period in the 13th century or, at minimum, that a strong Buddhist legacy remained for centuries among the Buddhist converts to Islam.

Relics of the Buddha By John S. Strong

"Under the reign of King Ashoka of the Indian Maurya dynasty (324-187 BCE), Buddhism was helped to spread throughout the surrounding region. After his only conquest of Kalinga, Ashoka was so full of sorrow and remorse that he resolved to refrain from violence, took the vows of an upsaka (lay Buddha) and dedicated the rest of his life to helping spread Buddhism to distant parts of his Kingdom. A great number of Buddhist missionaries were sent to spread the teachings of Buddha, and rock edicts set up by Ashoka state that he sent some to his North-West territories. In 1958, edicts inscribed on rock pillars promulgating the ethical standards of Buddhist teaching were discovered in Qandahar, Afghanistan and in 1962 a long inscription entirely in Greek (later identified as parts of Ashokas edicts) was found in the surrounding area. During the first century Balkh was famous throughout the region for its Buddhist temples and the Greek scholar Alexander Polyhistor mentions Buddhism's relationship with Iran and refers to Balkh and its temples specifically. It is widely agreed that without Ashokas patronage of Buddhism, it would have remained another minor Hindu sect as opposed to the world religion it is today.

Buddhism eventually demised with the Arab Muslim invasion of the 7th century. The Muslims considered Buddhists idol worshipers and did all they could to destroy "heretical" temples and deface artwork. Even one of the most famous testaments to Buddhism in the middle east, the massive Buddha rock carvings at Bamiyan were vandalized, a task that was tragically completed when the Taliban blew up what remained of the statues in 2001 with explosives, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons. The colossal Buddhas were cut at immeasurable cost (probably in the third and fifth centuries A.D.) into the tall, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan, an oasis town in the centre of a long valley that separates the mountain chains of Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba. The taller of the two statues (about 53 meters or 175 feet) is thought to represent Vairocana, the "Light shining throughout the Universe Buddha" The shorter one (36 meters or 120 feet) probably represents Buddha Sakyamuni, although the local Hazara people believe it depicts a woman.

"....The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; Chinese: 補特伽羅論者; pinyin: Bǔtèjiāluō Lùnzhě) or "Personalist" school of Buddhism broke off from the orthodox Sthaviravāda (elders) school around 280 BCE. The Sthaviravādins interpreted the doctrine of anatta to mean that, since there is no true "self", all that we think of as a self (i.e., the subject of sentences, the being that transmigrates) is merely the aggregated skandhas. The Pudgalavādins asserted that, while there is no ātman, there is a pudgala or "person", which is neither the same as nor different from the skandhas. The "person" was their method of accounting for karma, rebirth, and nirvana. Other schools held that the "person" exists only as a label, a nominal reality.....Among the most prominent of the Pudgalavādin schools were the Sammitiya. The distinguished Buddhologist Etienne Lamotte, using the writings of the Chinese traveler Xuanzang, asserted that the Sammitiya were in all likelihood the most populous non-Mahayanist sect in India, comprising double the number of the next largest sect, although scholar L. S. Cousins revised his estimate down to a quarter of all non-Mahayana monks, still the largest overall.They continued to be a presence in India until the end of Indian Buddhism, but, never having gained a foothold elsewhere, did not continue thereafter."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudgalavada

"Mithra was incorporated as the sole successor of Gautama the World Teacher. Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) brought Greek culture to Central Asia. This gave certain influence upon early Buddhism. Buddhists developed Gandhāra style art, which was a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian arts. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandhāra style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period (60 BC-375 AD). It might have affected the rise of Maitreya cult too. Maitreya cult developed during the period from 2nd BC to 2nd AD under the reign of Bactria (265-125 BC) and Kushan (60 BC-375 AD). Sutras called “Maitreya trilogy” 弥勒三部経(Jp: Miroku-sanbukyō) were also formed during this period. The state religion of Bactria was Mithraism. Kushan adopted this policy."......http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/zen_buddhism_and_persian_culture_v1.pdf

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….November 2012

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Padmasambhava (732 AD) & Chakdara, Pakistan

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"Padmasambhava is said to have been born in a village near the present day town of Chakdara in Lower Dir District, which was then a part of Oddiyana."....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_Pakistan

Guru Pema Gyalpo (Skt. Padmaraja; Tib. གུ་རུ་པདྨ་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wyl. gu ru pad+ma rgyal po; Eng. 'Lotus King') — one of the Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche. In this form, Guru Rinpoche is depicted as a young prince with his left leg folded in his lap and his right leg extended and set on a lotus, ready to act; with his right hand he plays the damaru and with his left hand, he displays a mirror......Guru Rinpoche remained in Oddiyana for thirteen years to teach, as a result of which the king, queen and many others attained realization and the rainbow body. Then he was known as Pema Gyalpo, 'The Lotus King'.

“All roads lead to Balkh,” uttered Gurdjieff, referring to the Sufic origin of all systems. Yesai Narai writes, “Balkh is the town often associated with Padmasambhava, and Rabia and Rumi as well. Although Padmasambhava is usually thought to be Indian, it is possible that he is from the Afghanistan region also associated with his name.”......http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id17.html

Padmasambhava....The site of His Holiness the Karmapa wrote, “If born in the year 732, then he would have been 54 years of age when he made the difficult journey into the Land of Snow” - a moment in history that denotes the first coming of Buddhism to the Himalayan region. Furthermore, “One may conclude that a major reason for so many Indian Buddhist sages coming to Central Tibet from Kashmir, and notably, the famous Padmasambhava from Uddiyana (Bactria), was the simple fact that Tibet then ruled much of this region. Nothing is really reported concerning Padmasambhava’s life in Kashmir. He lived, some say, with wandering yogis and sadhus, in exile from his homeland. Others report that it was during this period that he acquired knowledge and skill in various crafts. In Kashmir he earned the name Sthiramati, ‘the Youthful Genius.’

Kashmir Shaivism was a householder religion based on a strong monistic interpretation of the Bhairava Tantras (and its subcategory the Kaula Tantras), which were tantras written by the Kapalikas.

The Kāpālika tradition was a non-Puranic, tantric form of Shaivism in India, whose members wrote the Bhairava Tantras, including the subdivision called the Kaula Tantras. These groups are generally known as Kāpālikas, the "skull-men," so called because, like the Lākula Pāsupata, they carried a skull-topped staff (khatvanga) and cranium begging bowl. Unlike the respectable Brahmin householder of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kāpālika ascetic imitated his ferocious deity, and covered himself in the ashes from the cremation ground, and propitated his gods with the impure substances of blood, meat, alcohol, and sexual fluids from intercourse unconstrained by caste restrictions. The Kāpālikas thus flaunted impurity rules and went against Vedic injunctions. The aim was power through evoking deities, especially goddesses.

The early Buddhist tantric yogins and yoginis adopted the same goddess or dakini attributes of the kapalikas. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup, damaru, flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or khatvanga.

"There is also a tradition that Dzogchen,and Padmasambhava, come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from this same Tun huang site identify Oddiyana as "Shamis en Balkh" in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist. This is the town oft associated with Padmasambhava, and Rabia and Rumi as well. Although Padmasambhava is usually thought to be Indian, it is possible that he is from the Afghanistan region also associated with his name.

Elevated/raised is Persian bala and sham is Persian candle. ...CANDLE (Pers.-Ar. šamʿ). The Arabic word (Ar. also šamaʿ) literally means “beeswax” (Ebn Manẓūr; Dehḵodā), for which Persian uses mūm (Dehḵodā, Moʾīn, s.v.).

Padmasambhava reawakened a particular fusion of Manichaeism and Buddhism in the 8th century in Tibet. This revived synthesis became known as Vajrayana or Thunderbolt. The highest vehicle of Buddhism, also known as the Third Vehicle, is Vajrayana....http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id17.html

"There is also a tradition that Dzogchen, and Padmasambhava, come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from the archeological site in Dunhuang identify Oddiyana as Shamis en Balkh in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist.....the Tun huang and Central Asian Buddhist texts recovered by Emmerich and discussed by snellgrove."

"Both Bon and Nyingmapa sources affirm, that Dzog chen comes to Tibet from the northwest - from a persiansource (repeated in earlier Nyingmapa sources but affirmed by the great 19 century Nyingmapa scholar and practitioner, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye) and from Oddiyana in Shambhalla (the Tun huang and Central Asian Buddhist texts recovered by Emmerich and discussed by snellgrove and taught as part of recovered Buddhist history in Dharmasala identify this region as "Shamis en Balkh" - modern day Balkh in Afghanistan where ruins of many Buddhist stupas and monasteries still exist). Tun huang sources also show that a possible Bon is the pudgalavadin version of Buddhism coming into Tibet BEFORE orthodox versions make it in. The Nyingmapas, as also affirmed by Kongtrul and Longchenpo, split off from the Bon when the new translations begin in Tibet. Western scholarship tended to disbelieve this until documentation from original sources and contemporary with the time were found to substantiate it. As the other Tibetan Buddhist lineages have always suspected, Dzog chen is not quite orthodox Buddhism but a heterodox form of it. But whether or not Dzog chen was originally non-Buddhist altogether, heterodox Buddhist Bon or pudgalavadin or whatever). Since nothing in Tibet matches HPB yet nothing in India matches her views either, again, what is the objection to looking in Central Asia except those interested lack the academic or secondhand competence to intelligently look there? Tibetan is an equivocal term. It could mean linguistic, racial, religious, political, or geographical. Tibet had colonies. Some are still under the Dalai lama: Bhutan, Mustang. Neither Buddhism nr Bon exhaust the religious landscape there. HPB says it is northern source and esoteric."....The Blavatsky/Tibet and Stanzas of Dzyan Connection.....by Grigor V. Ananikian

Padmasambhava's birth. It is commonly stated that he was miraculously born from a lotus-flower on Dhanakosha lake in Uddiyana. (Lake Danakosha located on the Afganistan-Pakistan frontier on the river Sindhu (Sita), one of the four great rivers that springs from the four directions of Kailash mountain, flows towards the Western Land of Odiyana..."

"ZANG DOK PAL GYI RI WOR KYE WAR SHOK ...... May I be born at the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain....May I be born in the realm of the Glorious Copper Colored Mountain......Atop a beautiful mountain of ruby......Is the jewel dome and levels of the celestial palace,

Tirich Mir is the highest mountain of the Hindu Kush range, and the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalaya-Karakoram range, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Tirich Mir overlooks Chitral.

HINDU KUSH..."The world mountain, sometimes identified with the Hindu Kus, whose substance was ruby"...(Campbell:1968..pg 203)...The Hindu Kush (Pashto/Persian/Urdu: ھندوکُش), also known as Pāriyātra Parvata (Sanskrit: पारियात्र पर्वत) or Paropamisadae (Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι), is an 800 km (500 mi) long mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan......

"The similarities of Bon to Nyingma, once thought to have been borrowed after Padmasambhava's time, is now seen by the most astute scholars to be signs of their mutual antiquity in the pre-Padmasambhava landscape of central Asia."....

"It has also been asserted by some scholars that Padmasambhava, although he may have been an actual historical figure, certainly did not teach Dzogchen, but only the Tantric system of the sGrub-pa bka' brgyad, the practices of the eight Herukas or wrathful meditation deities. This system forms the Sadhana Section (sgrub-sde) of Mahayoga Tantra. However, eminent Nyingmapa Lama-scholars, such as the late Dudjom Rinpoche, reply that although Padmasambhava may not have taught Dzogchen as an independent vehicle to enlightenment, he did indeed teach it as an Upadesha (man-ngag), or secret oral instruction, to his immediate circle of Tibetan disciples. This private instruction concerned the practice of Dzogchen and the interpretation of the experiences arising from this practice of contemplation. In the context of the system of Mahayoga Tantra, Dzogchen is the name for the culminating phase of the Tantric process of transformation, transcending both the Generation Process (bskyed-rim) and the Perfection Process (rdzogs-rim). In this context, Dzogchen would correspond in some ways to the practice of Mahamudra in the New Tantra system (rgyud gsar-ma) of the other Tibetan schools. An old text, the Man-ngag lta-ba'i phreng-ba, traditionally attributed to Padmasambhava himself, does not treat Dzogchen as an independent vehicle (theg-pa, Skt. yana), but only as part of the system of the Higher Tantras. When taught as an independent vehicle, Dzogchen practice does not require any antecedent process of Tantric transformation of the practitioner into a deity, and so on, before entering into the state of even contemplation (mnyam-bzhag). So it would appear that, according to the Nyingmapa tradition at least, Dzogchen originated as an Upadesha that elucidated a state of contemplation or intrinsic Awareness (rig-pa) that transcedended the Tantric process of transformation alone, both in terms of generation and of perfection. Therefore, it became known as the "great perfection," that is to say, the state of total perfection and completion where nothing is lacking......http://www.angelfire.com/vt/vajranatha/bondzog.html

Padmasambhava Tibetan: པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས།, Wylie: pad+ma 'byung gnas (EWTS), ZYPY: Bämajungnä); Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, Chinese: 蓮花生大士 (pinyin: Liánhuāshēng), meaning "the Lotus-Born," was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighboring countries in the 8th century......

Padmasambhava said......My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra (Sanskrit; Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ). My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri (Sanskrit; Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་མོ). I belong to the caste of non-duality of the sphere of awareness. My name is the Glorious Lotus-Born. I am from the unborn sphere of all phenomena. I act in the way of the Buddhas of the three times........His Pureland Paradise is Zangdok Palri (the Copper-coloured Mountain).

"It has also been asserted by some scholars that Padmasambhava, although he may have been an actual historical figure, certainly did not teach Dzogchen, but only the Tantric system of the sGrub-pa bka' brgyad, the practices of the eight Herukas or wrathful meditation deities. This system forms the Sadhana Section (sgrub-sde) of Mahayoga Tantra. [35] However, eminent Nyingmapa Lama-scholars, such as the late Dudjom Rinpoche, reply that although Padmasambhava may not have taught Dzogchen as an independent vehicle to enlightenment, he did indeed teach it as an Upadesha (man-ngag), or secret oral instruction, to his immediate circle of Tibetan disciples.".....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?start=2

"Padmasambhava is regarded as the second Buddha in Bhutan and Tibet by followers of the Nyingma school, where he is better known as Guru Rinpoche ("Precious Master"). He has also been called Arunagiri Babaji. Like Khezr, Guru Rinpoche appears to each individual human being in a unique way, in the form that fits in with their spiritual world-view. Therefore, in one sense, Guru Rinpoche has as many biographies as there are people on Earth. Some have speculated that not only are these two myths of Khezr and Guru Rinpoche similar, they are in fact, one being."......http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id17.html

"Arunagiri Babaji......For Buddhists, the Lord Padmasambhava represents a second Buddha. For the Hindus he is the deathless Mahavatar (Great Avatar), the eternal youth, or Kumara. For the Christian he is the Christ-consciousness. The Himalayan yogis know him as the foremost of their great Saints, or Mahasiddhas, while amongst the sages he is known as the supreme Magi (mahamuni). For some initiates he is known as Arunagiri babaji, the holy master of the Sacred Red Mountain. In our tradition he is the Paramguru, the supreme Guru of those who follow the way of Tantra.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

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John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….June 2014

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